[/caption]Another one of my favorite neighborhood haunts is, of course, the legendary St. Vincent De Paul Thrift Store. Many of you are quite familiar with this store, as I will use any excuse to peruse possible, including but not limited to, a bike sale (purchased a radio flyer bicycle w/ training wheels for $5) an end of season sale, a visiting guest who needs a book, sweatshirt, new wardrobe...When I walk into a thrift store I have that sudden rush of feeling that I can have anything in the store. I feel like waving a 20 around and announcing, "I'll take it all!" Ben has begun to enjoy this feeling and asks quite often for a visit to St. Vinny's for a look at their toy aisle (he is allowed to spend a whopping dollar and usually ends up w/ several toys for that amount.) My favorite spot, besides the magnificent, well-organized and
[caption id="attachment_2180" align="alignright" width="225" caption="How fabulappy Ben feels when he gets himself a dollars worth of toys."]
[/caption]extremely reasonably priced books, is the $1 rack. I have found so many spectacular tops, crazy pants, skirts on this rack. That's not even to mention the earrings for $2-4. I love it when I find a person who is just as excited about me finding something there at the dollar rack (you know who you are.) I am in fact the person that Ellen Degeneres joked about one day on her show that some people actually brag about how cheap their clothes are rather than how expensive. That's me. Cheap bragger.
Last week (or was it the week before?) Ben & I were perusing the store. When we went to check out, the female checker (Ben & Ellie's favorite kind of checker) looked disappointed. She inquired if Ellie was at school. I said that yes she was. It sort of
[caption id="attachment_2177" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="How namused (not + amused) Ellie feels to find herself in St. Vinny's with 2 browsers (the opposite of a fast shopper such as herself)."]
[/caption]caught me off guard as I always feel somewhat invisible in the store. The attempts I have made to hold conversations with some of the employees have been unsuccessful, simply eliciting a mumbled "huh" to get me to NOT share any more information with the person. Of course not all the employees are like this, but I suppose those are the ones that have left me feeling somewhat invisible and less chatty during check-outs. But I digress. The checker then went on to say how impressed she was with how polite Ellie is, always saying her "pleases and thank yous and your welcomes." She said this was quite a contrast to some of the other
[caption id="attachment_2175" align="alignright" width="300" caption="How fabulappy Thom is when we save money!"]
[/caption]young customers she sees (fortunately, she did not look pointedly at our Ben!) It was quite a boost to have such high praise for sweet Ellie in an environment where I don't often think anyone there will remember us. And it was quite a shock too because I had just written my "tolerating" blogs and here was yet another person in the position of appreciating all of the wonderful things about Ellie.
Hey! I went to the West side St. Vinnie's yesterday. Thought about you, of course! Have you ever been there? You should go! The loot is better at that location, it seems. It could be an outing for you and browser Ben whilst non-browser Ellie is enjoying school.
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